Lionel Nallet is a player reborn since losing the French captaincy as he has displayed in the two opening victories in this year's Six Nations.
Against Wales in Cardiff on Friday he will hope to keep French hopes alive of their first Grand Slam since 2004.
The 33-year-old lock admits that the slide in his form in last year's Six Nations tournament was down to playing non-stop since just before the 2007 World Cup, where he was instrumental in the French reaching the semi-finals only as in the 2003 renewal to be beaten by nemesis England.
"I had time to rest last summer," said Nallet, who will be running out for his 52nd cap on Friday having made his debut in 2000 against Romania.
"I had played unceasingly after the 2007 World Cup, both for club and country.
"It was virtually two years without a break!
"I went through a period where I was tired the whole time, I needed to rest up and I prepared myself for this season correctly (he opted out of the summer tour of New Zealand and Australia having been ever present since January 2008)," added Nallet.
He was also hindered by a rib injury that he carried through thick and thin having suffered it against Australia in 2008.
Part of his renaissance he puts down to his change of club, tearing himself away from Castres where he had been since 2002 and joining the moneyed Parisian side Racing-Metro, where he has formed a 'dream partnership' in the second row with French icon Sebastian 'The Caveman' Chabal.
"Pierre Berbizier (the Racing-Metro coach) plays the game with the international players," said Nallet, scorer of six tries for his country.
"Whether it be me or 'Seb' (Chabal), he left us out so we could prepare for the Six Nations during the European Challenge Cup matches in January."
Nallet - outstanding in both the 18-9 win over Scotland and the 33-10 humbling of 2009 Grand Slam winners Ireland - has no regrets at being replaced on a permanent basis as skipper by the Ivory Coast-born Thierry 'The Dark Destroyer' Dusautoir and instead has focussed completely on returning to the high standards he showed two years ago.
These qualities were on show when he produced a masterclass of forward play in outmuscling and outplaying South African World Cup winning lock Bakkies Botha in the French victory (20-13) over them in Toulouse last November.
"There was a good coming together at each scrum," recalls Nallet, who had suffered at Botha's hands in a previous test in Cape Town in 2006.
As regarding the Welsh challenge Nallet said it was imperative that the 2008 Grand Slam winners were not allowed to get off to a better start than they have managed in their first two matches, in which they have let both England and Scotland open up large leads.
In the England match they failed to peg them back but against Scotland trailing 24-14 with under four minutes to go the Welsh ran out 31-24 winners.
"The Welsh are a team that like to run with the ball a lot more than the Irish," said Nallet.
"Even if they have had difficult moments in their first two games, when one sees the way they can finish in matches then things will be very complicated if they start in that fashion against us.
"We must stop them from even getting a toehold in the match."
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